Man sentenced to hefty probation for sexual misconduct with a child

Published 5:30 pm Friday, December 2, 2022

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A Rochester man convicted of two counts of sexual misconduct with a child, has been sentenced to 15 years of supervised probation.

Daryl Robert Lavan, 32, was charged with two felony counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13 in 2021 where he pleaded not guilty. He changed his pleas to guilty in April of this year.

On Wednesday he was sentenced in Mower County District Court to 36 months in prison on both counts, stayed for 15 years for both. The sentences will run concurrently, unless Lavan violates parole. In that case, the prison sentences of three years for each would run consecutively.

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Lavan was arrested in late April of 2021 after it was reported to the Mower County Sheriff’s Department that two girls under the age of 12 had been in appropriately touched and that the youngest had marks on her consistent with “hickeys.”

According to the court complaint, adults close to the girls were suspicious of Lavan’s behavior around the girls and when interviewed by a detective and a Child Protection Agent, the older girl admitted that when Lavan hugged her, he would put his hands down her pants and touched her.

When questioned, according to the complaint, Lavan claimed that it was something he and girl’s mother would often do when they were younger and that the practice occurred over their clothing.